Reviews written by registered userotto4

11 out of 16 people found the following review useful:Sadly this was not direct to video, 27 August 2005

I payed to see this in the theater when it came out. My friend that
went with me still hasn't forgiven me. For years after that this movie
was our metric for measuring bad movies, as in "Man, that movie stunk
almost as bad as The Patriot".

The only part of this movie I remember is when the good guy is storming
an abandoned, rusty, offshore oil rig where the bad guys are, and he
knocks one of the bad guys into the water. The bad guy sinks, but his
M16 rifle floats...

I followed up the viewing of this movie with Sky Pirates about a week
later. After that stinker ("man that was almost worse than The
Patriot") my roommate stopped listening to my suggestions for movies to
see.

0 out of 2 people found the following review useful:Fun movie, good sets, but slightly farcical., 9 July 2005

I'm a longtime fan of Hammer horror films and hadn't seen this one
until recently. The sets were all excellent. The creative use of
'monsters', including the evil genii, the Goat of Mendez, the Angel of
Death, and the giant spider, were well done and entertaining.
Christopher Lee was as usual, fantastic. The scenes of the satanic
rituals were sort of stupid looking. I think they may well be taken
from popular references to Alestair Crowley, the Great Beast, and his
"satanic" efforts in England in the 1930's (?) as the symbols used on
the costumes look very very similar. But aside from that and aside from
some supreme stupidity on the part of various characters in the movie,
it's a fun view. The ending left a bit to be desired though.

I guess I'd classify this movie as one that starts out well and
stumbles a bit past halfway through, becoming a movie which is
ultimately so-so, but which has many good parts. ("Whole parts")

25 out of 27 people found the following review useful:Fascinating historical footage., 27 June 2005

I've only seen this movie once but what differentiates it for me is not
the story, the actors, or the director, but rather the footage of post
WWII Frankfurt Germany and the devastation wrought by the war.

In addition to the general post-war, pre-Cold War footage, the most
fascinating thing is the film shot inside the I.G. Farben builting.
This building is famous among architects and has a unique interior,
shown in the film. This building was also the "Abrams Building" during
the time the U.S. military occupied it during the Cold War and anyone
who was in Frankfurt in the 1970's or 1980's might recognise it as
unchanged inside from the time the movie was made to the time one
served in the Army. This film is rare because that was a secure
building during much of the Cold War. Today I believe the Army has left
the building and it is occupied by a school or college.

5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:Hilarious movie, but with a caveat., 26 June 2005

When I first saw this movie was less than impressed. Sure it had some
funny moments, but overall I felt a lot like I was watching a cross
between Star Trek the Original Series and a Mel Brooks film. Then I
watched it again. And again. Then I went back and watched ST:TOS on
DVD. And suddenly I got it. Galaxy Quest is funny on its own, but the
humor of it only REALLY becomes outright tear inducing if you remember
some of the old Star Trek episodes, like the one where Kirk fabricates
a weapon to fight an alien. In the movie Guy says "Look around, is
there anything you can use to fabricate a rudimentary lathe?" A lathe
being a complex machine tool that one does't just "fabridate" on the
fly.

I think the measure of how much this movie sticks in your mind after
you've seen it and appreciated the humor is that, while watching a TV
commercial with the same actor who plays Tech Sgt. Chen in this movie,
I didn't turn to my friend and say "Hey! That's the guy from Galaxy
Quest!" Instead I said "That's Tech. Sgt. Chen!" and my friend, who is
not a star trek fan, knew immediately what I was talking about.

14 out of 16 people found the following review useful:This movie is hilarious, wish it was on DVD!, 26 June 2005

I had not seen the original Beau Geste, with Gary Cooper in the title
role, when I saw this movie. After seeing this movie, including a
*hilarious* 'cameo' of Gary Cooper, I watched the original. It only
made me appreciate the humor in the Last Remake even more. The Last
Remake (were there ever previous remakes?) parodies the story
completely, but every other scene makes you laugh. The scene with Gary
Cooper would almost certainly not be allowed on TV today due to
censorship so you'll have to buy this movie on, ick, VHS to see it. But
at a time when new releases are $10+ to see not including popcorn,
paying about $20 for a VHS of this movie, and being able to show it to
friends and watch it over and over, is worth it. Trust me on this :).

16 out of 17 people found the following review useful:Great movie from my childhood!, 10 June 2005

This is one of the more original Toho productions out there, and it's
also one of the more frightening. The Green Gartantua is the bad one,
and he is only too happy to eat people whole whenever he gets the
chance. The classic seen in this movie is when the Green Gargantua
comes ashore near a hotel/apartment complex and tears the walls off
exposing people inside. Then he grabs one and pops them into this
mouth, chewing with gusto! To top off this great scene he *spits out*
the chewed clothes of the person he ate, sort of like a person would
spit out a cherry pit.

14 out of 17 people found the following review useful:Good movie, see and hear the original, not the TV version, 2 June 2005

I'm glad I'm not the only person who remembers the closing scene of
this movie as having the song "Carry on Wayward Son" as the music,
instead of whatever dreck the edited-for-TV version used. That scene,
and this movie, sticks in my mind now almost 30 years later. This movie
which starts as a simple comedy gradually transforms into something
that offers genuine pathos and commentary about life. You have to see
this movie. This movie also features a young Harrison Ford in a small
but compelling role.

This movie was, sadly, heavily edited for broadcast and it changed the
feeling of the movie in substantial ways. Seek it out in the original
movie format and soundtrack and it's quite special.

Just give it a chance and watch it until the end, no fast forwarding. I
guarantee you will never listen to that song again without choking up.

3 out of 9 people found the following review useful:Boring, uncreative., 30 April 2005

Let me state up front: this movie is not just a remake, it's also a
ripoff of several other movies including a made for TV movie in the
1970's starring Barbara Eden as a woman impregnated by aliens.

The problem I have with this movie is that it's completely formulaic:
main character talks with kids...random/main character is killed by
kids, repeat. Why wait until the end to see which, if any, of the main
characters are left alive? There's no concept of time. The kids grow,
but are they growing up in weeks? Months? Years? There's no way to
tell. It's just plain old boring.

The best part of this movie is the first half hour or so, before the
kids actually show up. THEN this movie is a bit creepy, unpredictable,
and it even has a couple scenes with some decent shock value. But when
the kids finally arrive it's just snooze-ville.

4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:This movie wasn't very good even on its first run, 17 April 2005

I'm a fan of good, plausible, action movies. And I'm a huge fan of the
elite military units such as the Navy SEALs. Finally, I'm a huge fan of
Michael Biehn. Sadly none of those allowed me to really enjoy this
movie at the time. I gave it another chance more recently when I bought
the DVD. Here's the problems with this movie in a quick list: 1. It's a
poor mans top gun, for example including a virtual music video of the
SEAL team playing golf with a soundtrack of "The Boys are Back In
Town", which concludes with Charlie Sheen doing an inane chase to get
his towed car back.

2. This is quite simply a Charlie Sheen movie, when Sheen was trying to
be famous before he started doing stuff like Hot Shots. Reports I've
heard indicate that Sheen was a baby on the set and it affected the
roles and Direction the rest of the actors in the movie got.

3. Biehn is the head of the SEAL team yet Sheen seldom obeys him. Any
SEAL showing the lack of discipline that Sheen's character does, or who
endangered the team as he does, wouldn't even have made it through BUDS
training let alone gotten on a team.

4. SEALs are cross trained on weapons. Yet in one part of the movie a
SEAL has to "figure out" how to use a U.S. Stinger Missile.

There are a few good scenes in the movie. The assault entry at the
beginning, Bill Paxton as "God", and some of the footage in what was
supposed to be Beirut at the time. Overall though this movie is a
loser.

20 out of 21 people found the following review useful:Fun movie, good miniature work., 23 February 2005

I saw this in the theater as a kid and loved it. The story about people
living a Utopian existence in a domed city underwater sticks with me
today. I'm not sure how I'd feel seeing it again, when the so-called
'good guys' in the movie are so anxious to get back to their own world
that they endanger the underwater city and steal a submarine. But it's
a fun movie with good sets, great miniature work on the subs, the
cities, and the giant sea monster. I wish this was released on DVD as
the sets and sub were quite neat looking.

A neat aspect of this movie is that they tried for a bit of science
"fact". For example, the most common material in the undersea city was
gold, because they used a process to pull gold out of sea water.